Arrow “Unfinished Business” Review

Arrow episodes seem to be on an uptrend in terms of quality, and this week’s “Unfinished Business” is no exception. In this episode, we saw the return of Seth Gabel’s The Count as well as have some important plot lines that we thought were dropped be brought to the forefront. All of the major players gave spectacular performances and the episode managed to pay off on the different problems I’ve had over the past couple of weeks. There were a few iffy issues this week but the large majority of the story was very interesting and continued to move the plot forward.

Much like Roy’s story last week, this week decided to pay off on a story I have been wanting to see followed up: the fallout of Oliver and Tommy’s relationship. It was bad enough to make Ollie believe that Tommy had anything to with that girl dying of Vertigo, but the larger issues of Ollie not trusting his best friend after all Tommy has done for him in keeping his secret was just a low blow. It seems like Tommy’s past is worse than we thought and only Laurel trusts him implicitly and believes him to be on the right side. The fact the Detective Lance was the one to focus on Tommy really sweetened the deal, as it is not very often that he does any substantial police work. The ending was a bit iffy, as after everything that has happened between Tommy and his father, it seems like the last place he would go for a job. This raises the question if Tommy will have any involvement in The Undertaking.

At the same time, Oliver was hunting down the new supplier of Vertigo and it was fairly simple to see that The Count was in no shape to be making the drug. The plot of the episode was very similar to one from a Batman Beyond episode featuring the resurface of Bane’s Venom drug, only for Batman to find a decrepit Bane barely able to breathe on his own. Similarly, it was Bane’s the doctor brewing the Venom, just as it was here with the Vertigo. I did like that Oliver blamed himself for what was happening, as Oliver’s mercy has been one of the traits that has allowed for villains to recur. He really did put the blinders on in regards to most of his allies and it nearly cost him many of his valued friends.

Diggle’s storyline finally came to the forefront and how he can’t really move on until Deadshot is firmly six feet under. I enjoyed Diggle pointing out that they need to put Deadshot down and that Oliver can’t be the only one determining who they go after. It really spoke to Oliver’s “this is my mission, so my rules” mentality and how that is not going to fly if they truly are a team. I feel this message worked better this time around than earlier in the season when they were up against The Royal Flush Gang. Oliver realized the Count was not a threat for now and let him live, whereas Deadshot has moved to the top of Team Arrow’s list of people to put down.

We also got a tiny little story on the island with Ollie slapping the bowl; in as non-dirty a way as possible, and it firmly established what Shado’s role on the island is. She will serve as bow training where Slade will most likely do all the hand-to-hand stuff. It’s interesting to have to competing points of view for training and watch Shado and Slade butt heads should be rather enjoyable. We still have no idea what Fryers wants to do or who hired him, only that we are heading towards something, so yay we have a start!

Overall I really wished that we had spent more time on the Count or that he was secretly working things from inside the asylum, but we know that he will eventually be back and that our prime target outside of The Undertaking is Deadshot. We have a little break as there is no new episode until April 24th and then we will be barreling to the season finale.

Extra Thoughts

– Like I said lot of major players did not make an appearance, I guess Roy and Thea are on R&R after Roy’s encounter last week.

– I liked Oliver’s solution of volume of arrows to account for his lack of accuracy under Vertigo.

– “You haven’t won till you show me wear the knife was.” Slade likes being bottom I guess.